Diablo III & Reaper of Souls

[Raid]

If you're starting from scratch, then yes, you want to do it. There's not much point in not.

Seasons are basically Blizzard's way of getting you to restart with a fresh character every few months. The enticement is a selection of new legendaries that are only available to season characters. When a season ends, you keep your character, but they can't take part in the next season. You can make them normal or hardcore.

[DjchunKfunK]

Turned the game up to Torment 7 and finally things are starting to become a bit more difficult. I can still chop down Elites with a few hits, but I have to watch out a bit more as I can be taken out with a couple of hits off normal enemies now.

[Snowy]

Although I never thought I would, I have gone back to this. Playing on Expert with a mate, initially with him as a Wizard and myself a Barbarian, but finding that at lvl 38 the Barbarian is basically trailing in the wizard's wake trying to get a hit in while the Wiz laser-melts-your-face-off every mob that shows up.

So, all change - solo'd a Crusader up to 33 (so far), will get him caught up and then switcheroo. Enjoying the game again, which after all my slagging off the whole experience after the vanilla playthrough back in the day, I am mighty surprised at.

[Raid]

Yeah, it's a much better game these days. Just the fact that you no longer need to play for 20 hours before the game poses a challenge is a colossal improvement.

And yeah; I played as a wizard for quite a long time. They're absolutely devastating with the right combination of skills.

[Rusty]

Yup, since they removed the auction house and improved the drops it's a different game. Back int this in a big way. The seasons stuff helps too. Some nice targets that, if achieved, result in a full green set items.

[Snowy]

Yes that was my main gripe - I ploughed through the solo experience with my original monk where to be honest all I needed to do was hold the LMB down to guide him on the path - the paper bag enemies were zero challenge. After standing in front of Diablo himself long enough to slap him into oblivion without once having been even vaguely challenged, only to be told I had completed the game and could increase the difficulty and try again, the air turned blue in Snowy Towers.

That, plus the AH and all the rest, just put me off. Another Blizzard grind-a-thon totally lacking in enjoyment.

Fast forward, crank up the difficulty and enjoy all the changes they have made, and a few years late it is a pretty damned good game!

[DjchunKfunK]

The Diablo 1 in Diablo 3 thing looks pretty naff, more like a mod than anything else really.

[eVoL]

Not sure what you were expecting....

[Mantis]

It looks okay. A full HD remaster of 2 would have been a better announcement.

They really dropped the ball with this year's Blizzcon, I think people were expecting a lot more than an annual dungeon event and a DLC character for a game that most people are long finished with.

Here's hoping the D2 20th anniversary gets something a little more special.

[Raid]

Yeah, that's exactly how it was described. Keeping the same animations but only playing every third frame is a nice touch.

People who say that Diablo 3 was watered down and that the first two were much better games probably haven't played them recently. I only played D2, but the stamina bar, constant restocking of potions on your belt, only having two abilities active at one time, inability to experiment with builds without starting an entirely new character, lack of difficulty options (that, granted, Diablo 3 didn't have until RoS), all of these things made D2 a much more irritating experience. Diablo 3 is an excellent game, full of Blizzard's usual charm and polish. I'd rather we got an entirely new expansion than just the Necromancer character pack, but I imagine it'll tide me over.

[DjchunKfunK]

Not sure what you were expecting....

I was expecting a bit more effort in the art department.

[Mantis]

I think they dropped a ball massively with the skill system in D3. D2 was far from perfect, but it was still a better game than the third outing which took a years worth of patching and an expansion pack to fix. D2's expansion built some of the best content into an already strong game.

I think overall it's the graphics and atmosphere combined with the awful writing that makes me remember D3 sourly. Path of Exile is the true spiritual successor to D2. Reaper of Souls was a good expansion pack, but the base game just isn't strong enough.

[DjchunKfunK]

Yeah I'm not 100% sold on the skill system in D3. Yes you can quickly and easily change things up, but it doesn't feel as interesting to me.

[Quietman]

What's wrong with the skill system?

[Raid]

The only issue I've heard with it is that because you automatically unlock everything, every character is identical at max level. I'm not sure that's a big deal myself, as your skills generally change dramatically based on what legendary equipment effects you have equipped.